The Jazz Butcher
The Jazz Butcher Releases Condition Blue
Details
[album cover] [album cover] [album cover] [album cover]
Classification: Album
Label: Creation Records, Sky
Catalogue: CRECD110, SKYCLAD 5080
Date: 1991 (Creation Records) 1992 (Sky)
Recorded: April/May 1991, Raven, Norfolk and Submarine Sound, Northampton
Note: The Sky release has sides A&B switched
A-Side
Girls Say Yes
Our Friends The Filth
Harlan
Still & All
B-Side
Monkeyface
She's A Yo-Yo
Honey
Shirley Maclaine
Racheland

Credits
Paul Mulreany - Drums
Joe Allen - Bass Guitar
Alex Lee - Lead Guitar, Rhythm & Backwards Guitar, Motorcycle & Fuel Air Explosions, Lynch-Mob
Richard Formby - Lead Guitar, Tremelo & 12 String Guitar, Infinite Guitar and Feedback
Alex Green - Tenor and Alto Saxophones, String Arrangements
Pat Fish - Lead Guitar, Rhythm & 12 String Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals
Sumishta Brahm - vocals
Peter Crouch - Rhythm Guitar - Bird Guitar on Girls Say Yes
Owen Jones - Organ solo on Our Friends The Filth
Laurence O'Keefe - vocals - Lead Guitar on Harlan
Peter Astor - Lead Guitar on Honey - Aquamarine Guitar on Harlan - Harmonica, Singing
Tim Burrell - Piano on Girls Say Yes
Alastair Indge - Vocals
James Rogers - Vocals
Howard Turner - Vocals
Colin Harris - Samples
Tim Burrell - engineer
Howard Turner - engineer
Andy Elliot - engineer
Pat Fish - engineer
Lionel Cullman - photography
Pascal Legras - sleeve
Thanks
Thanks to the bureaucratic idiocy on the part of the Butcher and his associates the contributions of Alex Lee & Sumishta Brahm to the previous JBCLP Cult Of The Basement have gone uncredited. The Butcher would have you know that they both played leading guitar stuff on that record, as well as on this one.

Respect and thanks are extended to the groups who let their musicians out to play on this waxing, specifically: The Blue Aeroplanes Levitation, 13 Frightened Girls and Spectrum. Thanks also to Ensign, Ultimate and Silvertone.

Deep gratitude goes out to all involved. This Butcher owes you one. Special love and thanks to Paul Mulreany , Tim Burrell and Sumishta Brahm , without all of whom God Only Knows...

Reviews
Rage Magazine (UK), September 1991
Select Magazine (UK), December 1991
Option (USA), May 1992
The Washington Post Charming Chiming of Jazz Butcher (Washington, DC, USA), Fri, May 1st 1992
Details For Men (USA), June 1992
Creem Magazine (USA), July 1992
The Butcher Says..
Four desperate men, all too desperate to notice how desperate the others are, gather in a farmhouse with a queue of lead guitarists stretching round the block. For all the pain and crap from which this record was made, the actual sessions were a gigantic and wonderful party.

The songs are all long because we (Paul, Joe, Lix & I) just enjoyed the playing on the "to-be-faded" bits so much that it seemed a shame not to let everyone hear them. This was warmly received by The Outside World, less popular among those who counted themselves JBC afficionados. Well, I couldn't have written it any other way, and I love that everyone plays on it, so I'm not in much of a position to know why you don't care for it. All I can say is that I'm still well pleased with it as a recording, and as a piece of writing about a tough subject. I mean, I hate "divorce rock" too. It wuz a tough assignment.

Go on, give the fucker another listen. The songs may not make you laugh, but the playing ought to give you a few thrills. And, after all, I'm not in a band to make money, or be a "professional entertainer" - I'm in a band because I like to play very loud electric guitar. This IS the sound of me having fun, and getting me to do that in those dark days of mid-1991 was no small job. (Can anyone tell me how I *knew* that the French were going to like " Girls Say Yes "?)

Visitor Feedback
Visitors' comments for this page [Add your own]
  • Racheland-Condition Blue
    h2ofuego[at]-remove-yahoo.com - Jimmy Duval
    18Jul2018 3:37 PM (4 years 327 days ago)
    RACHELAND - One of the Best Songs Ever Written by anyone Ever. A tough prospect considering the entirety of the album itself is a masterpiece. So are all the other ones! Yes Sir!!!

    Always,

    jimmy x
  • Condition Blue
    tracy.kaply[at]-remove-gmail.com - Tracy Seattle
    22Apr2011 5:56 PM (12 years 51 days ago)
    Was thinking of how much I loved this cd and how I played it over and over until some greedy bastard stole it, and now I just downloaded it from iTunes and am happily singing along.

    Such a great cd.
  • Condition Blue sequencing
    dubrowg[at]-remove-gmail.com - greg, san francisco
    26Nov2010 3:34 PM (12 years 198 days ago)
    I feel like I should apologize on behalf of the label. I worked for Sky at this time, in Philadelphia (the label was based in Georgia)...drove you around town for a couple of radio things the day you were in town to play JC Dobbs. Our label manager made the sequencing decision. Had I known what he was doing I'd have tried to keep your original sequence. Regardless, I love the record and it was a pleasure to help it get attention in the US. I was a fan well before we put out the record and have remained a fan since.
  • How?
    doc6502[at]-remove-yahoo.com - Doc
    29Jul2010 12:23 PM (12 years 319 days ago)
    My goodness, how can it be that this record is nearly 20 years on and it's still a powerful brew? It's still one of my go-to records and it's saved my melon on one or more than one occasion. You played at the Lounge Ax in Chicago. Terrible venue, but you lit up the place. Scissor-walking while playing "Take The Skinheads Bowling". Why is everything memory?
  • sequencing
    butchiebaby[at]-remove-wilsondub.com - the butcher
    9Dec2008 4:56 PM (14 years 185 days ago)
    Gary, you heard right. Basically I sequenced the album and the UK and European versions duly came out the right way. The American company, without consulting me, decided to start the album with She's A Yoyo, as this was their preferred choice for radio play. To achieve this, they simply swapped the two sides of the record, which, frankly, left it making no sense whatsoever as an album.

    correct sequencing is: girls say yes/filth/harlan/still n all/monkeyface/yoy/honey/shirley/racheland.

    So now you know.
    Pat x
  • Sequence?
    volume11[at]-remove-gmail.com - Gary, Ohio USA
    9Dec2008 8:06 AM (14 years 186 days ago)
    Just now noticing that the A and B side sequences shown here are different than the CD... the CD starting with Yo-Yo and ending with Monkeyface. Any significance to this?

    Guess I'll make a playlist in this sequence and give it a listen and all will be revealed.
  • Best
    Vinifera325[at]-remove-aol.com - Sascha, Berlin
    5Mar2007 7:56 AM (16 years 101 days ago)
    For me your best work. Full of warmth and organic flow. lots of soul in the real meaning of this word.
    Thanks for this...
  • Condition Blue
    dreamtidespress[at]-remove-yahoo.com - Hail from California
    28Jun2006 2:05 PM (16 years 351 days ago)
    This album synched so deeply into a road trip I took to California that I listened to it on an endless loop and even drove 300 miles out of my way to find Rachael land. I'm not sure I found it, but I did find Honey!
  • Condition Blue...
    plasticsoul2001[at]-remove-hotmail.com - San Gabriel, CA
    15May2005 9:09 PM (18 years 29 days ago)
    ..one of my favorites. Beautiful, beautiful artwork on the cover of this one. Listening to this always recalls a very happy time in my life although I don't know what it was specifically that I was happy about. I don't fight it though...I just listen.
  • condition blue
    glasgow - the search engines
    17Dec2000 9:35 AM (22 years 180 days ago)
    i don't see what the problem is.
  • Condition Blue - Arlington, VA, USA
    6Dec2000 11:01 AM (22 years 191 days ago)
    My favorite JBC album, and I have them all except Bacon.